Yikes - I think most of the people who really enjoyed and appreciated the “Ask the” thread were genuinely appreciative of the opportunity to learn about quadriplegia. She certainly didn’t seem to need any “moral support” – attention, yes, of course – but I don’t see how the interactions made the people who really liked her feel “morally superior.” If anything, people seemed to feel morally inferior based on how amazingwonderfulgreatattitudeperfect she was. But, now that all is said and done, I agree: good entertainment.
I don’t think her narrative voice was particularly engaging. As I said, I thought it was rather annoying, but then I hate overly perky people. It just didn’t seem natural to me. Like when someone asked her if her carer shaves her pubic hair or something, and other people started saying that was inappropriate to ask, so she jumped on that, “YEAH it’s inappropriate to ask!!!” and then other people started being like, “Well, you did answer like a billion other extremely personal questions so I don’t see what’s so inappropriate about that,” so then she was like, “Oh, I guess it’s okay, let me answer it.” Now, if this is her life and her thread and she’s the one begging everyone to ask her questions–anything, really!–then why couldn’t she make up her mind on her own? And it was all kind of like that…just trying to play to the audience. But she was pretty good at it and some people can find success in that. She should write stupid popular vampire books or something.
I’m not posting this to be mean or mock anyone. I hope folks find these links helpful or healing:
http://becauseilive.hubpages.com/hub/Munchausen_by_Internet
http://www.justenoughblog.com/?p=2403
http://www.paris-kim.com/potholes/munch.htm
Wow. Just seeing this latest uncovering now. Good sleuthing all. I’m just glad it ended now instead of lingered and created even more division and vitriol.
And there’s a vast difference between fiction and lying. One is escapism or entertainment as an art that you’re clearly in on for the sake of it. The other is outright deceit for whatever the others perverted gain is. I’m guessing it’s just some creepy older dude who gets his rocks off pretending to be a pretty, wealthy, quadriplegic girl, and that’s all, but really we have no idea if umkay had an endgame or not, and could’ve started asking for help or a donation or anything material. (making up some tragic story where she looses her fortune).
Skepticism, not cynicism. Why not gain inspiration from millions of real people in real circumstances?
Or maybe someone like you, who a lot of us thought was fake, shouldn’t be posting a bunch of crap encouraging the same type of thinking amongst people. The way you were treated is directly caused by this same type of thinking: this idea that it’s okay to possibly hurt innocent people as long as you are right. We’re fucking screwed fighting this ignorance thing if people who have gone through the ignorance of this board still wind up supporting them. You were treated like shit because of their wrong thinking, but learned nothing.
You want real skepticism? we have no reason to believe any of these people. There’s no way they were skeptical before it happened, or they would have said something. They’ve already demonstrated that possibly hurting someone is not something they actually care about. Why didn’t they speak up? It surely wasn’t because they’d get piled on, as that didn’t stop them now. They clearly just weren’t sure.
And I have no reason to actually believe they’ve caught her. If they were truly skeptics, the idea that they can “prove” someone is something because you find someone on another board who has done the same thing would be the last thing on their mind. They’re only skeptics when doing so allows them to feel superior to everyone else. I mean, they convinced me that you were fake, too.
Skepticism is something you use for scientific truths, because you can’t hurt them, or about things that actually matter, where not being skeptical hurts more people than it helps. It’s not something you use in day to day interactions. Unfortunately, the confirmation bias of occasionally being right, combined with the lack of evidence when they are wrong, leads these people to continue thinking this way. The one thing that should stop them is the one thing these people don’t really care about.
Especially since most people who would have argued with them are now going to back down, because of the stopped clock thing. Or maybe just because they know that, once someone gets the right conclusion, there’s no real way to get them to believe their actual premises were wrong. I’m probably hoping against hope that I can at least get through to you, someone who shows promise in being both an intellectual and a decent person.
With all due respect, BigT, get a grip.
Ah, I was wondering when you were going to pop in and lecture us, BigT. A little late, aren’t you?
Perhaps someday someone will get through to you that you’re a sanctimonious retard.
Not really, because if “umkay” is her idea of a character, she’s a total Mary Sue.
And I don’t think we learned anything about being quadraplegic. I’d rather not take a phony’s word.
Check out the third link I posted. It details one person’s experience with a message board hoaxer and what happened when she tried to tell others about her suspicions.
Two words: Kaycee Nicole
Hoo boy, talk about being late to the party…
Because they were feeding their fat fucking egos by gushing over the sweet cripple girl as being so BRAVE and INSPIRATIONAL, patting themselves on the back at how UNDERSTANDING and SUPPORTIVE they were. They would have done better to treat her as a human being with faults and failings instead of some fabulous zoo animal, then when the troll was exposed they would have had nothing to be ashamed of. That, though, would have meant not being able show their EMPATHY in a sickening fawning competition, though, and the idiots who got showed up deserve to be mocked for their dribbling credulity.
Umm, all of you people who are so sure that umkay is a troll: could I ask one of you a favor? I lost $20 on the sidewalk the other day. There’s $5 in it for any one of you who can find it for me.
I don’t remember who said it a few pages back, but it bears repeating, even in light of recent developments: I’d very much prefer being gullible to being an asshole.
As for narrative voice, I get what **Blackberry ** said about her unending perkiness. In retrospect, annoying. But at the time, the way she wrote was, as a whole, engaging in my opinion. But I do hope that people are not in need of “healing” after finding out that **umkay **is fake. It’s fascinating but hardly traumatizing. It’s a first world problem for sure --someone lied to me on a message board. But I disagree that I haven’t learned anything about quadriplegia. Much of what she said as far as straight information can be confirmed…anyway, here are some examples of what I liked about her writing:
I can’t use my arms, so yeah–somebody’s gotta help me get food to my mouth or I die. 
Pah. Public restrooms are for schmucks and paras.
Well, since I can’t feel when I need to use the facility and I’m not into diapers, I’m a lucky girl that the bowels are a highly trainable beast.
I’m offended by this kind of thinking, because it implies that 1) my life is soooo onerous that not weeping constantly is proof of my enormous emotional fortitude and grace; and 2) that the chair somehow transforms everyone who lands in it into a nice person. Both are untrue. Now, I don’t have anything against being called strong, per se, but I’d prefer it be based on something other than the fact that I’m disabled and not also suicidally depressed about that fact.
It bears mentioning that I do in fact get goosebumps at times–but I consider them one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (the other three being sudden headache, sweating on my face and neck, and–for real–a psychological sense of impending doom).’
and being told, upon landing, that it’s going to take 45 minutes to an hour to get my wheelchair to the gate, but this plane’s got a schedule to keep, so perhaps I don’t mind waiting in the aisle chair at the gate, strapped in like a mental patient?
And I guess that’s what I’d love to get across to you and everybody else reading this: I get it. People in chairs get it. I know there’s a moment when you meet me when you’re not sure what to say, what words and questions are appropriate or not. Unless I’m having an uncharacteristically sh*tty day, I want you to have a successful interaction with me just as much as you do. And I will help make that happen in whatever way I can. Plus, if you’re reading this, you’ve likely already read much of this thread, meaning you’ve already gotten your curiosity out of the way (how I pee! that I can have sex! and enjoy it!), discovered that you and I have a lot in common, and you can just have a normal conversation with me. And if a person in a chair is going to make you feel like an idiot for making an innocent mistake (I mean, who does that?), then maybe it’s just that that particular person isn’t very cool, and in that case you could have run into them as an AB and still felt awkward and judged.
Oh, and the reason I’m posting the examples is because I just think it is an interesting discussion – as trolls go, is she more interesting/a better writer than usual? Or not. Just sort of pondering over the aftermath.
Cochrane - have you checked out the What to Expect link?
Wow. Interesting point of view.
She’s a decent writer, just not much emotional depth, because as **Guin **said, her character here is a total Mary Sue. And her other character is exactly the same. Actually so is all of both of their families. But her writing is mostly clear and direct.
If she wrote a book and I read it, at first I’d probably be like, “This book has interesting subject matter plus it’s easy to get into and I like that in a book,” but then as I kept reading I’d be like, “Wow, is the whole book really going to be like this?”
Wait… was it folded and wrapped with a blue rubber band?
There’s 9 pages in this thread. Although I’ve tried to scroll back and come up to speed, I can’t grasp what exactly happened. Could one of you kind people please paraphrase the whole thing in a couple of sentences?
Are umkay, NotOkay, and the quadriplegic (EVsomethingorother…) the same person?
I’ve got some bad news about Santa, too.
Yeah, maybe so, about the book. And wow now that I think about the rest of the family - they were, weren’t they? Filthy rich but didn’t believe in pre-nups; Air Force test pilot, popular handsome athlete brothers; twin insisted on taking every class with her when she came back to school…sigh.